A little over a month ago Connor Roberts would have had little reason to believe his long-awaited chance to pull on a Swansea City first-team jersey was just around the corner.

The 22-year-old full-back was on loan with Championship side Middlesbrough, enduring a frustrating campaign which had yielded just four appearances and had seen - Garry Monk - the man who had signed him, already sacked and replaced by Tony Pulis.

It followed a similar experience at Bristol Rovers the previous season, made all the more galling by just how well Roberts had done at Yeovil during the 2015-16 campaign where he won the club's player of the year award.

All of which meant Roberts could hardly have foreseen what was to happen when Carlos Carvalhal was named Swans boss.

Barely a week after the arrival of the Portuguese - and thanks to the input from club great Alan Curtis - and Roberts was back in South Wales and preparing to make his bow against Wolves in the FA Cup.

With Kyle Naughton suspended and Angel Rangel injured, Roberts took his chance with both hands.

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He has impressed with his assured displays on both sides of the Swans defence, featuring in every game of the cup campaign and making his Premier League bow into the bargain.

It's been quite some turnaround, and Roberts looks set to have the chance to help Swansea create history and reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 54 years at Hillsborough on Saturday.

"It has been a bit of a whirlwind," he admits.

"I was up at Middlesbrough, I wasn't playing and I was getting frustrated.

"So it was good to come back, and within a couple of days the gaffer had chucked me straight in and I like to think I have done well and held my own.

"I've also had a Premier League debut and that is something that, no matter what happens from here on, no-one can take away from me so it's been a great, if unexpected, few weeks.

"I will always be grateful to the manager for putting me in and giving that chance, and I hope there are a few more opportunities to come between now and the end of the season.

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"I have to keep working hard, listening to what he and his assistants want from me and try and make myself a mainstay in that first-team squad."

It had been a long road to that debut for Roberts, who hails from Crynant.

He had first joined the Swans academy set-up at the age of nine, and has helped the under-21 and under-23 sides to notable successes in recent seasons, including a league and cup double last term.

But he openly admits there were times when he wondered if he would ever get the chance to pull on a first-team shirt in a competitive fixture, but his hard work has paid off and the achievement is made all the more special by his lifelong affinity to the Swans.

"This is my club," says Roberts, who also showed promise in rugby, cricket and athletics as a youngster.

"I have seen players come here at the age of 16, 17 or 18, but I have been here since I was nine years old and that makes it all the more special for me.

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"To hear the fans singing my name has just been unbelievable for a boy from Crynant.

"It's more of a rugby village and people always ask you when you are going to play for the first team.

"I'd be honest and say there were times I wondered whether it would happen for me here.

"Just because Ben Davies and Joe Allen had done it, does not mean it would be the same for me.

"I knew I had to keep my head down, keep working hard even if I thought if might never come.

"Now it has come, and whatever happens for me in the future I can say I played for Swansea City and I played in the Premier League.

Connor Roberts

"My family are big rugby fans, but they are very proud of me. They've always been so supportive of me, as have my friends and girlfriend, and it's great to be able to see everything they have done for me get rewarded and pay dividends."

And what of this weekend's trip to Hillsborough?

There may not be any points at stake, but it is a chance to keep up the momentum that has built under Carvalhal and the Swans travel to South Yorkshire on the back of a nine-game unbeaten sequence, their longest in nine years.

"I hope to be involved, momentum is so important for us at the moment so every time you play you are looking to make sure that keeps going," said Roberts.

"We have to keep putting the performance and who knows what can happen in the cup? We could stay up and go a long way in the cup.